The seniors are stressed out about job interviews. Majorly stressed out.

20 years ago, when I first arrived at this party it was a given at my suburban high school that upwards of 90% of kids were going to college. That’s no longer the case. My own son chose to enter the trades and is going to be out-earning me as an electrician within five years. He’s 18.

My colleagues and I tried to give them a crash course in job interview questions, but it was too much information shoved at them too quickly in too short a time frame. It didn’t stick. They needed ongoing practice, given out a little bit at a time, so the concepts would gel. They also needed a way to keep track of everything they’d like to say in an actual job interview so they could review it right before an actual job interview! I think the mistake in the crash course approach was as much about timing as anything else. We waited until the stress was so overwhelming (end of year) that they couldn’t even think.

I’ve been working on a new yearlong bell work collection of 72 tough (but common) job interview (or, if you prefer, station rotation) questions to give them bit-by-bit, ongoing practice starting next August and carrying all the way through May. Each day, they’ll learn how to answer a different challenging interview question and outline what they’d say in a packet they’ll take with them when they leave and enter the real world. The assignment gets them thinking, talking, and planning ahead for all those tricky, stressful interview questions. The Beta Testers (this year’s underclassmen guinea pigs) are into the idea.

It can be really challenging to figure out ways to connect the curriculum standards to the knowledge they’ll need to be successful later, and I feel this bell work hits the sweet spot between the two. I’m so excited to use it next year and hit the ground running.

I’ve got it up on TpT now. I’d love it if you’d check it out; there’s a sizable sample up so you can get a feel for it and see what you think.

E2E Interview Savvy: 72 Bell Work Prompts to Prepare Students for Job Interviews

Keywords: secondary, ELA, business, college and career ready, SECD, career planning, bell work, writing practice, reading practice, full year lessons, printable, research engraged2engaged, job interview questions, real world learning